Automating Sales Incentives Processes for a Swiss Industrial Machinery Manufacturer
Our client is a global leader in elevators and escalators, recognized for its commitment to quality and innovation. Founded in 1874 in Switzerland, our company is at the forefront of industry innovation, working on pushing the boundaries of technological engineering while strongly focusing on safety, efficiency, and reliability. Moving more than two billion people each day, their products can be found in many well-known buildings throughout the globe, including offices, residential buildings, airports, and specialty buildings. We’re a leading employer in the industry, with over 69,000 engaged employees enabling mobility within the urban world.
Automating Sales Incentives Processes for a Swiss Industrial Machinery Manufacturer
Our client is a global leader in elevators and escalators, recognized for its commitment to quality and innovation. Founded in 1874 in Switzerland, our company is at the forefront of industry innovation, working on pushing the boundaries of technological engineering while strongly focusing on safety, efficiency, and reliability. Moving more than two billion people each day, their products can be found in many well-known buildings throughout the globe, including offices, residential buildings, airports, and specialty buildings. We’re a leading employer in the industry, with over 69,000 engaged employees enabling mobility within the urban world.
SITUATION
- Our leading elevator and escalator provider encountered significant hurdles in managing incentives for its salesforce.
- Challenges included complex and inaccurate calculations, reliance on Excel, and lack of transparency.
- It resulted in decreased motivation due to the absence of leaderboards and the inability to simulate potential incentives.
- To boost salesforce efficiency, the company partnered with Incentivate to tackle these challenges.
APPROACH
- Structured meetings with experts from both parties were held to identify system challenges and understand their business requirements.
- The client faced three intricate issues related to revenue, collections, and a substantial number of field queries due to underlying calculation nuances across these metrics.
- A detailed discussion and prioritization session helped both parties reach a consensus on breaking down the implementation into phases.
- The first phase aimed to enhance visibility for the field, while the second phase focused on giving administrators flexibility to adjust parameters, simulate the plan, and visualize potential impacts on individual performance and earnings.
- The third phase focused on adding guard rails to avoid process compliance issues, primarily through adding approval processes for exceptions and acknowledging individual performance by managers.
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OUTCOME
- 90% reduction in erroneous payouts led to a substantial improvement in incentive programs, saving time and boosting morale.
- Reduced bandwidth usage by 40%, streamlining operational resources towards other value-added activities.
- A significant one-third reduction in turnaround time ensured no payout delays and improved operational efficiency and responsiveness.
- Increased sales bandwidth by 20%, allowing the team to handle more opportunities and drive greater revenue.
- Leaderboards positively impacted employee motivation, leading to a 20% increase in overall job satisfaction and team morale.
PROBLEM
- The client struggled with inaccurate incentive calculations, leading to potential discrepancies in the sales compensation plan.
- Over-reliance on Excel hindered accessibility, while the absence of performance dashboards limited their transparency in earnings.
- Employees faced difficulty simulating and understanding their earnings potential due to the absence of a tool for predicting their incentives.
- Missing leaderboards based on cohort levels prevented healthy competition within the salesforce.
SOLUTION
- We customized dashboards and delivered real-time performance metrics, providing visibility to track progress.
- We introduced a ‘What-If’ calculator for incentive simulation. Reps could forecast incentives based on different scenarios, which enabled realistic goal-setting.
- We implemented leaderboards to motivate sales teams by monitoring their individual progress.
- We configured workflows to handle inquiries about incentives, adjustment requests, and exceptions through an approval process, leading to a more efficient incentive administration.
- To enhance user engagement, we triggered personalized nudges through Incentivate mobile app and other channels like Slack and WhatsApp.
CONCLUSION
Through collaboration with Incentivate, the organization successfully optimized its incentive management and sales engagement processes. Implementation of tailored dashboards, workflows, and leaderboards resulted in improved accuracy and zero complaints within the salesforce.
